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| [PHOTO: Shiny Things/CC BY 2.0] |
Washington: The World Bank has approved a $55 million grant from the
International Development Association (IDA) to assist Afghan youth to advance
their skills and competencies as the country expands its work force. A skilled
and employable workforce is important to Afghanistan’s nation building efforts
that can continue to drive the country’s prosperity and people’s wellbeing.
The Afghanistan -
Second Skills Development Project (ASDP II), implemented by the Ministry
of Education (MOE), focuses on building systems and institutions in the formal
sector that will impart technical and vocational skills in diverse job streams.
This follows an earlier project financed by the World Bank that has been
supporting formal and non-formal interventions since 2008. With this new
financing, the World Bank will have provided a total grant of $93 million,
including from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) in Technical
and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The Government is contributing $5
million. Further support to the non-formal sector is being proposed under a
separate project. The project will also contribute to creating self-employment
opportunities by working with other projects like the Afghanistan Rural
Enterprise Development Project (AREDP).
The most noteworthy success of ASDP to date has been the
establishment of the National Institute of Management and Administration
(NIMA), revitalizing the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) that is
nurturing gifted young musicians in the country, and supporting the Blind
School in Kabul. Most of the first cohort of NIMA graduates have been able to
find employment within six months of graduation. The project has also
provided short term training in technical and business development for over
9,000 persons, more than a third of whom are women.